Did I mention that I had wanted to ride my ATV in Bulldog Canyon over the MLK weekend? I went to the DMV to get the off-road sticker that is required now. They were closed for MLK day, even though it wouldn't be MLK day for two more days. So I went to a third party place to get the sticker. I sure was glad they were open, because I really wanted to ride my ATV to the other side of Willow Basin and see what was over there. I had to wait in line for 45 minutes, but it would be worth it. The third party place charges $10 more for the sticker than the DMV (well, they're in business to make money). Worth it, so I could see what's out there. So I got the sticker, built a bracket to hold the license plate with the new sticker, put it all together, rolled the ATV out into the driveway, started it up, and after 10 minutes of warming up concluded that it wasn't running good enough to go anywhere. Dagnabbit. It had been sitting too long and the carb was gummed up.
Kyle messed around with it for a while. He was a little worried about taking the carburetor apart since we didn't have a very good diagram. He finally opened it up yesterday, squirted carburetor cleaner in a few places, and put it back together. It runs great now.
Kyle wanted to try it out today. We went out to Hewitt Canyon Road. I drove quite a way before stopping to unload the ATV. I wanted to be in a place with nice scenery and not a lot of people, so I could enjoy being out there while Kyle was riding. I'm glad I did that. He took off first, and I just kind of wandered around taking pictures. There were clouds on the mountains, and puffy clouds here and there, and sunlight peeking through here and there. I think I got some good pictures.
About the time I got back to the truck, Kyle came zooming back. I think he is unaware that anything other than full throttle exists on that ATV. He was hot from the exertion of riding. He said something about having to hit the brakes and skid to keep from going off a cliff, but at least he did it in a way that looked cool (he did a 180). Anyway, he was hot, tired, and ready to go home. I could go riding some other time.
Actually, that sounded like a good idea to me. I wanted to go see what was at the other side of Willow Basin. I wasn't ready to leave yet, though. There was another hill I wanted to explore. While I was up there, Kyle loaded up the ATV. I found something interesting up there. I think it must have been built by hikers or boy scouts, though. It isn't in a good place to be very useful to anybody else, and the craftsmanship doesn't look like what you would expect from somebody that would depend on the structure for something important.
I don't know how far Kyle went on that road. He must have gotten near the Roger's Trough trailhead. He said he was up in the clouds for a while. When you're down low looking up at the clouds, it seems like it might be cool to be up in them. But when you are, you can't see anything and it pretty boring.
I'm not very good at using the macro feature on my new camera. I think I know why. Some time when I don't have anything else to explain, I'll talk about that.
So we headed back home. I ate lunch and looked at a few of the pictures, and processed a few of the HDRIs. I've been trying to not take so many HDR pictures lately because it takes so much time to process them. That's the only way I can the clouds to look good, though. Since there were lots of clouds, most of the pictures are HDRIs.
After lunch I hurried out to Bulldog Canyon. I went to the part near Canyon Lake, where I've been hiking a few times lately. I unloaded the ATV in the parking lot at the entrance. I'd forgotten what a rough ride there is on that ATV. I think the suspension is set a little stiff for somebody as light as me. I stand on the pegs a lot to cushion the ride. Then whenever I stop to walk around some, my legs are real wobbly. I guess it wouldn't do much good to ride the ATV to a place to hike instead of walking. My legs would still be tired.
The road I was on does not connect to any other roads in Bulldog Canyon. The scenery was spectacular. My pictures don't even come close to showing how beautiful it is out there. I know where I'm going to be spending a lot of time in the coming months.
The area was in a canyon. Canyons tend to be dark, except where the sun is shining. So there were very dark places and very light places, and of course there were clouds, too. More HDRIs. It takes a lot of time, but these are situations that I used to dislike because I couldn't get decent looking pictures. Now, finally, I can.
I've been writing this blog while the computer is crunching pictures. It's getting late, though, and I don't think I'm going to finish tonight.
The road I was on doesn't exactly end. It just gets more and more difficult to make any progress. I finally got to a point where I either had to go through 2 foot deep water (ain't gonna happen) or go off a drop-off that would probably cause me to do a flip. I was just getting to the really pretty part, too. I'll have to drive out there, chain the ATV to a saguaro, and hike through the rest of the canyon.
I can't keep my eyes open any longer. I'll have to finish this tomorrow. Here are a couple of pictures until then.
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